Teaching Abstract Ideas Visually

Anan Zeevy (2010) Red Apple

In English there are many abstract concepts that can be taught visually, or aurally, to avoid having difficulties teaching students who may not be able to read or speak English very well. Looking at how to teach them to students from different backgrounds is an interesting way to expand our teaching styles and methods.

I will be looking at how to teach student about similes in a modern day English classroom, where some students may not have strong backgrounds in the English language.

 

Georg Schwalback (2012) 1968-1973 Opel GT (09)

Similes are a great place to start, because they lead into many different facets of English, metaphors, poetry and many others. In my lesson, I would plan to have 2 piles of images that can be said to be ‘like’ each other. In the example to the right, I’ve provided a picture of a red car, and a red apple. Places these two images on a white board or SMARTBoard, I would announce to the students that the apple, is like the car. Then I would ask students to talk in groups, about why I may have said that. Then coming back to a class discussion, I would ask students to present their ideas on why I said what I said. I would expect to get answers like “Because the car and the apple are both red”, “because the apple and the car are both shiny” and “because the apple and the car are stationary”. The diverse range of answers the class could give, will leave the class open for a discussion on why I used this terminology, and didn’t just say, the car is red like that apple, and so forth. It is possible to lead the students into even more abstract ideas, such as that the apple is like the car, because I want the car and I want the apple; leading into some of Shakespeare’s more abstract poetry.

This way of teaching is instruction and enquiry based. The initial and concluding teaching will be by the teacher, but the bulk of the lesson will be from student discussion.  I am unsure where this lesson would go on a Blooms Taxonomy scale, because the students are doing something I consider outside Blooms, but it could be seen as evaluating the question, but with out the lower levels of Blooms to build up to it.

Anan Zeevy (2010) Red Apple [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ananzeevy/4456311551/

Georg Schwalback (2012) 1968-1973 Opel GT (09) [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/geralds_1311/6840451042/